We recently reported on the Syrian government raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, during which two bloggers and more than a dozen activists were arrested. The six women arrested have now been conditionally freed and are required to report to state security offices daily. However, nine men including blogger Hussein Ghrer and Mazen Darwish, the director of the Center, remain imprisoned.

As we have previously covered, the Vietnamese government continues to crack down on bloggers and writers who have spoken out against the Communist regime. Alternative news site, Vietnam Redemptorist News, has been targeted by the state and several of their active contributors have been arrested. Paulus Le Son, 26, is one of the most active bloggers who was arrested without a warrant.

The Iranian regime is doing everything they can to scare their citizens into silence. Ranked among the worst in the world in terms of online censorship, Iran has taken harsher, increasingly sophisticated steps to stifle free expression online and condemn the act of information sharing in light of increasing political and economic tensions. While a recent initiative to create a national “halal” Internet would essentially block Iranians from the outside world, last week the country’s Ministry of Information Communication Technology (MICT) also issued regulations that force Internet cafés to install security cameras, document users’ browsing history and usage data, as well as collect personal information for each session of use. Worse still, bloggers continue to be arrested, detained, and now, even sentenced to death.

Late last week, the Iranian government descended deeper into authoritarianism, ordering the takedown of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's website. Rafsanjani, who heads an advisory body to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously refused to remove content critical of the government.